


A Good Man

by deathbyspaceglam



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-17
Updated: 2017-02-17
Packaged: 2018-09-25 01:30:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9796394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathbyspaceglam/pseuds/deathbyspaceglam
Summary: "You're a good man, Finn."





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for stormpilotweek. Prompt: Favorite quote / Favorite scene.  
> Kind of a combination of fic and meta analyzing how Finn felt about Poe calling him a good man.

“You’re a good man, Finn.”

For as long as he could remember, the best thing Finn could expect to be called was “good soldier.” It was what his fellow troopers called him when he completed a particularly difficult exercise in training. It was what Captain Phasma called him when he received promotions. It was the highest compliment that Nines, Zeroes, and Slip could offer him. “Good soldier, Eight-Seven.”

Finn was at the top of his class. He always got top marks in evaluations and always did the work he was assigned to do. By the First Order’s standards, he was not only a good soldier, he was one of the best soldiers. So much so that when Kylo Ren went on the mission to Tuanul, Finn was one of the soldiers sent to accompany him.

At first, he could try to pretend that the armed march on Tuanul was just another simulated exercise. But almost immediately, Slip was shot and fell behind. Finn doubled back to comfort the trooper who had been the closest thing to a friend. Slip reached out to him and dragged a bloody hand across the face of his helmet.

In that moment, as his pristine white helmet became smeared with blood, Finn felt something… unfamiliar. Like waking up from a deep sleep, or like what it must feel like to discover that the sky of one’s home planet was blue after having thought it was green. He stood up and looked around. What was he doing? What were they all doing?

Finn, like all the other troopers, watched as Ren executed an old man and took a Resistance pilot prisoner. Phasma approached Ren. “Sir, the villagers.”

“Kill them all,” ordered Ren.

The other troopers raised their blasters. “On my command,” ordered Phasma, and Finn hesitantly raised his blaster as well. “Fire.”

But while the others all opened fire- _massacred those innocent villagers_ \- Finn didn’t shoot. He lowered his blaster, feeling all too strongly the suffering of the dying villagers. Ren, on the way back to his shuttle, stopped and turned to face him. Somehow, even though he could not see Ren’s face, Finn could tell- he just _knew_ \- that Ren knew exactly why he hadn’t fired on those villagers.

Once he was back on the _Finalizer_ , Finn ducked into an alcove and removed his bloody helmet. He was sweating and breathing heavily, still panicking from the firsthand exposure to human suffering.

“FN-2187,” came Phasma’s voice from behind him, “submit your blaster for inspection.” Clearly, she was giving him the benefit of the doubt, but all of that doubt would be cleared up the minute she found out that his blaster wasn’t jammed.

“Yes, Captain,” said Finn. He would be deemed inefficient for displaying humanity. He would be sent to reconditioning.

“And who gave you permission to remove that helmet?” He was his armor before he was his face.

“I’m sorry, Captain.”

“Report to my division at once.”

\---

He couldn’t stay with the First Order anymore, not now that he knew what they were really like. Not now that he’d seen them massacre innocent villagers for no reason at all, just because they were there. And certainly not now that they knew what _he_ was really like.

They had captured a Resistance pilot. Finn could feel his emotions now, his pain and fear at being tortured, presumably by Kylo Ren himself. If he worked things out correctly, they could probably escape together. Besides, Finn hadn’t had any piloting experience or training. If this Resistance pilot could fly a TIE fighter…

Once he was confident that Ren was nowhere nearby, Finn strode into the cell holding the pilot, feigning confidence. “Ren wants the prisoner,” he told the troopers standing guard. They released him from his restraints, shackling his wrists with binders before allowing him to leave the room.

Finn marched the pilot down several hallways as if he were actually escorting a prisoner. “Turn here,” he said, leading the pilot into a small recess in the hallway.

“What?” asked the pilot weakly.

“Listen carefully. We do exactly as I say, I can get you out of here,” said Finn.

“What?” repeated the pilot.

Finn took off his helmet. “This is a rescue,” he said. “I’m helping you escape. Can you fly a TIE fighter?”

The pilot asked if Finn was with the Resistance before finally answering the question. “I can fly anything.” Finn started to laugh- he could barely believe that his last minute, out of nowhere escape plan was already working. The pilot was still confused. “Why are you helping me?"

And now, the truth. “Because it’s the right thing to do.”

The pilot stared at him for a moment. “You need a pilot.”

Well, Finn supposed that that was also true. “I need a pilot.”

\---

This Resistance pilot- Poe Dameron, as Finn quickly learned- was nothing like anyone Finn had ever met before. He hadn’t known "FN-2187" the way the First Order had, and even objected to calling him by his identification number. “Finn, I’m gonna call you Finn, is that alright?” he’d yelled over the noise of their escape. He had allowed Finn to decide, had asked him permission. Even though Finn had approached him wearing First Order armor, Poe had seen beyond that, recognizing the person that he was underneath- good and scared, trying to do the right thing.

On Takodana, Finn had encountered Nines again. “Traitor!” Nines had called him, seeing him without armor, skewering a trooper through the chest with a lightsaber.

In contrast, the next time Finn and Poe saw each other, they ran into each other’s arms, each having thought that the other was dead. After rejoicing that they were both alive, Poe explained that he had been thrown from the crash and had woken up alone at night. “BB-8 says that you saved him."

“No no no, it wasn’t just me,” said Finn. It had also been Rey and Han Solo who'd saved BB-8. Finn didn’t think he deserved that much credit.

Even still, Poe continued to praise him. “You completed my mission, Finn- that’s my jacket."

Oh yeah. Poe probably wanted his jacket back. Finn started to shrug it off.

“No, no no no!” said Poe. Finn pulled the jacket back on. “Keep it, it suits you.” Poe glanced down and bit his lip, then clapped Finn on the shoulder. “You’re a good man, Finn.”

That was new. Nobody had ever called him a good man before. A good soldier, maybe, but never a good man. All his life, the evaluation Finn had known had never been based on morality or character, only on performance as a soldier. And he had been a “good soldier” while training, but all of that had fallen apart the minute he’d been exposed to actual combat and his moral scruples had come into play. And then, he was no longer a “good soldier,” but a “traitor.” But here was Poe, the Resistance pilot who had trusted him so readily, even though Finn had been wearing the enemy’s uniform. Poe, who had refused to call him by a number, seeing the face of a friend before the armor. Poe, who had called him a good man.

This, Finn thought, was what it truly meant to defect from the First Order.


End file.
